Andy Holcomb wrote: > Does anyone know the price an encoder that would work on this machine > with emc and not made out of gold? > I have been buying my encoders recently on eBay in the $20 - 50 range, new in factory box. But, BEI, Dynapar and such make affordable encoders. Some are listed in the Digi-Key and Mouser catalogs. > Will the geckos run these motors? and are they good with emc? I am > trying to get an idea of the cost to retro fit it. Assuming DC brush motors with common specs, yes. But, you may want to use an encoder feedback board and a servo amplifier, rather than a Gecko-type step/direction drive. For instance, precise homing may be harder with a Gecko 320 drive, as it powers the encoder, but you need to at least get the encoder index signal to the computer to refine the home position.
My Universal PWM Controller board is $250, it supports 4 axes. Wire the encoders and index signals, plus home and limit switches to it. I make PWM servo amplifiers for $125, they handle up to 20 A and 120 V (I have a special version for up to 160 V). There is a spindle DAC option for $50 that can control a DC spindle controller or AC VFD to set spindle speed. So, for basic lathe functions, it will run $250 + 2*125 + 50 = $550. You likely will need additional I/O control points for your tool turret, etc. although the controller has 16 digital inputs and 8 SSR positions for output. This board functions as a break-out board, so nothing else is needed to hook it up. If you want to keep the servo amplifiers (might be a good or bad idea depending on the make and condition) I have the PPMC board set that has DACs to drive the +/- 10 V signals they take. This runs $780 but you get to use the existing servo amps. Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
